《Hoppe-关于公共服务理论和安全产品的谬误》.pdfVIP

Fallacies of the Public Goods Theory and the Production of Security by Hans-Hermann Hoppe Depamnent of Economics, Universiry of Nevada, Las Vegas In 1849,at a time when classical liberalism was still the dominant ideological force and "economist" and "socialist" were generally-and rightly so-considered antonyms, Gustave de Moliiari, a renowned Belgian economist, wrote, "If there is one well-established truth in political economy, it is this: That in all cases, for all commodities that serve to pmvide for the tangible or intangible need of the consumer, it is in the consumer's best interest that labor and trade remain free, because the freedom of labor and trade have as their necessary and permanent result the maximum reduction of price. And this: That the interests of the consumer of any commodity whatsoever should always prevail over the interests of the pro- ducer. Now, in pursuing these principles, one arrives at this rigorous conclusion: That the production of security should in the interest of consumers of this intangible commodity, remain subject to the law of free competition. Whence it follows: That no government should have the right to prevent another government from going into competition with it, or require consumers of security to wme exclusively to it for this ~ommodity."~And he comments on this whole argument by saying, "Either this is logical and true, or else the principles on which economic science is based are invalid."Z There is apparently only one way out of this unpleasant (for all socialists, that is) conclusion: to argue that there are particular goods to which for some special reasons the above economic reasoning does not apply. It is this that the so-called public goods theorists are determined to prove.) However, I will demonstrate that in fact no such special goods or special reasons exist, and that the production of security in